Sweetwater Donkey Punch!

Brewed by Sweetwater Brewing Company
Style: Barley Wine
Atlanta, Georgia USA

Packaged in a massive one liter bottle shaped like a SaturnV rocket with narcissistic label hype, and filled to within a half inch of the swing-top cap. Pours hazy cinnabar with slo-mo bubbles and puffy beige foam; sticky lace forms a rugged Antarctic panorama. Hoppy nose, citric and “green”, that smells strongly of sourdough and fresh-felled pinetree. Decidedly unbeerlike flavor… powdered iced-tea-with-artificial-lemon-flavor, Kool-Aid, peach, and peppermint. Alcohol taste is well hidden and clean. Cliched Pinesol finish. Mouthfeel: barely medium-full, sugary, and creamy with ethanol. The aftertaste swells to a cherry-chocolate bitterness, then fades to lime jello and high octane heat. Not very complex or unique; there is a superficial, single-track focus on fruity hops without any supporting malt or yeast character, and the beer quickly becomes trite, even boring.

1 L. bottle. Thanks to Dan! Very attractive nose, complex and intriguing, with notes of grapefruit, orange, brown sugar, malt toast, pine, fresh herbs, peppery spices and a faint waft of alcohol. Hazy light-medium amber color with a fine, slight head. Flavor profile is unfortunately a bit of a letdown after that aroma, with a wash of harsh bitterness and watery, thin, toasty, grainy, dry maltiness. Some citrus and pine comes through, along with a strong dosage of alcohol and an accompanying fiery finish. So close.

Bottle shared by Dansting at theisti’s Holiday Tasting on 12/28/07. Pours a deep orange-red with a thin wispy skin that reduces to a small ring of beige bubbles clinging to the edge of the glass. The nose is a huge, sweet, malty front with notes of dark fruit and nice, big, citrus hops. Medium-bodied and oily (almost flat) on the tongue, with a bitter hopped finish. Sweet, slick and malty up front with piny, citrus hops bringing some balance to the finish. This is a nice and hoppy, yet fairly mellow, barley wine. Thanks for sharing this one with us, Dan!

Hazy goldish amber. Sparse carbonation. Plenty of sweet malt in the aroma and lots of citrusy hops. A little thin on the body. A barley wine more on the malt side. Hop flavor came out more as it warmed. Nice piney, dry American hop finish. Could use a little more punch if you will. Thanks to Dansting for this one.

1 L. bottle shared by Dansting at my Holiday Mini Tasting. Pour is hazy red copper with pretty much no head, just a few soap bubbles that cling around the edge of the glass. Aroma of some caramel biscuit malt with some hoppiness. Taste is big sweet caramel malt, with a thinner body than expected. There is a bunch of citrus fruit hoppiness in the taste as well. Well put together, alcohol is well masked in the flavor. Big thanks to Dan for sharing this one.

Citrusy and floral aroma, cookie dough, bready, wildflower honey. Full mouthfeel. Taste is citrusy, dripping with tangerine. Bitterness is moderate. Nice balancing sweetness. Very enjoyable, hard to believe it is 10%.

Poured was amber color with good head and lacing throughout the beer. Aroma was piney and citrus hops. Flavor was amazing balanced with nice citrus and pine hops with nice caramel malt backbone. Wasn’t over sticky either solid one here.

Courtesy of TheBeerCellar. Yeah You rock! Poured gold with a small off white head. Aroma of hops, malt, and citrus. Good hop character with a nice sweet malt backbone. Orange and lemon flavors also present. Very good.